Motivational Minute

I just had an absolutely amazing customer service experience. It was so unique I had to write about it.

For almost 24 years, or since I started my business, we have been buying our office supplies from a company in the Chicago area named Reliable (www.Reliable.com). I don’t think you could find a more appropriate name for a company. They have always been reliable, responsive, available and accommodating. No problem too big, no task too small.

Today I opened an envelope from them that had been sitting on my desk for a week. I thought it was a bill but it turned out to be a statement saying my last invoice was past due. This was strange since I always pay their bills on time.

I pay all my bills online so I looked it up and found the payment was sent on January 29th but as yet, had not cleared, which was strange, so I called Reliable. Here’s where it gets good.

I dialed the phone and a real, live person picked up before the phone even rang on the other end. How they did that I have no idea. Better yet, why can’t more companies do that?

While I was impressed, I figured now I’m going to have to tell my problem to this woman who will only switch me over to someone else: WRONG! She not only was the right person to speak to but she knew exactly what the problem was (they had closed their Chicago box where payments used to go and now had a PO Box in Atlanta for payments. My payment obviously went to Chicago and would be coming back.), explained it to me in words I could understand and gave me 3 choices.

Pay the bill now and wait for the first payment to come back. Wait for the first payment to come back and then pay the bill. Or, put a stop on the first payment and then pay the bill. In all 3 scenarios the late charges would be wiped out.

Since I trust them implicitly (their return policy is so hassle-free it’s almost fun to return stuff. Almost.), I paid by credit card right then and there and was off the phone within 5 minutes: A truly unique experience.

Why are experiences like these the exception and not the rule? What that woman at Reliable did was nothing anyone else or any other company couldn’t do. It was only what most people and companies have no desire to do; that’s the big difference: Culture.